Instagrammer Shuts Down Diet Shake Company That Pestered Her to Be a Brand Ambassador

She also tackled the toxicity of diet culture.

From making money with a sponsored selfie to scoring modeling gigs, the life of an Instagram influencer can be very cushy. Sometimes, however, the invitations to do "spon-con" can cross the line into harassment. Charlotte Rollin, a 20-year-old Instagrammer and social and content intern at Birchbox, discovered this when one diet shake company wouldn't leave her alone.

Charlotte, who goes by @_charlottesweb on Instagram, has been open about her experiences with eating disorders and often writes inspirational posts about mental health. She also isn't afraid to address how harmful diet culture can be. "PLS CAN WE MAKE A COMBINED EFFORT TO STOP DIET CULTURE AND THE GLAMORISING OF ED'S IN GENERAL," she writes in one post. "So many industries are built on the idea that we’re not good enough and don’t deserve to feel happiness in who we are and it’s so. wrong."

But The Choco Diet, a company that sells diet shakes, seemed to overlook this when they sent an email asking her to be a brand ambassador. At first, Charlotte explained on her Twitter, she tried to ignore them. But after three emails that she says kept "getting more and more aggressive," she had enough, Mashable first reported. On Sunday, Charlotte tweeted a screenshot of her strongly worded letter to the company, along with the email that prompted her response.

"An Instagram diet shake company literally wouldn't stop emailing me about a potential 'collaboration' and so after at first ignoring them, I decided to tell them what I actually thought 🖕🏻," she tweeted.

"I had hoped the absence of my response would prevent you from contacting me again, however seeing as you have now emailed me three times regarding this 'collaboration', I feel a need to reply and hopefully prevent further correspondence," Charlotte begins. "It is quite apparent to me that you have not taken the time to look at my previous social media posts or even have an idea of the type of the content I create, as if you had, you would most likely be aware that I in fact have suffered with anorexia for the past five years."

Charlotte continued by tackling the toxicity and triggering nature of sponsored detox drink ads. "I therefore would, under no circumstances, even consider promoting a diet or detox drink on my social channels, which many follow as they also suffer from mental health issues and use as a reassurance that they are not alone in these struggles," she wrote. "I find the nature of your product to be damaging, and I know for a fact that these shakes are not a healthy way to lose weight, even for those that have a genuine, non-disordered desire to do so."

The Instagrammer concluded her letter by raising a red flag about the discrepancy between The Choco Diet's followers and likes. "Moreover, it is very suspicious to me that you have over 10,000 followers, yet most of your Instagram posts have less than 20 likes," she writes. This is a clear indicator to me that your business and following is not a legitimate one. I would appreciate it if you did not reach out to me about potential collaborations in the future, and suggest you find a new means to approach influencers that does not include blanket emailing and aggressive follows-ups."

Charlotte's call-out tweet has since garnered almost 100 retweets and almost 1,000 likes. In the comments, other social media users have come forward saying they've also been contacted multiple times by the same brand.

"I'm glad it wasn't just me!" writes user @bethxjames. "That's the second miracle diet company that has contacted me and it literally makes me feel sick knowing that influencers say yes to promoting these products! 🙄😓💕"

It's important to remember that diet culture can be incredibly harmful for many people, especially those who have eating disorders, and that sponsored posts should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Teen Vogue has reached out to Charlotte as well as The Choco Diet for statements and will update accordingly.

UPDATE:Charlotte has since elaborated on her decision to call out The Choco Diet. In a statement to Teen Vogue, she said she's always ignored emails from other diet shake companies since it's "always clear" they haven't researched her content enough to know she has an eating disorder. This time, she added, she responded since she wanted The Choco Diet to know their progressively "aggressive and rude" strategy didn't work. She also said she disapproves of promoting such products since they lead to unhealthy weight loss, even for people without eating disorders, and wants other brands to learn from her reply.

"As someone with anorexia, companies that promote these sort of products are hugely triggering and I felt that they should be aware of the impact they have before contacting bloggers," said Charlotte. "I’ve suffered with anorexia for 5 years now and although I still battle with it today, I’m in a far better place than I was when I was younger. I wanted to tell this company just how wrong their approach was, as I would hate for a similar email to reach someone else who was in a more difficult headspace and for it to trigger a relapse or further disordered behavior."